A necessary hand count of early votes left Russellville's attempt to annex previously unincorporated land into its city limits in limbo Tuesday.

Of the 8,683 votes cast Tuesday, annexation opponents narrowly edged supporters by 91 votes - 4,387 to 4,296. Vote counting machines were not calibrated properly to tabulate early votes cast in the election, meaning a final hand count would determine if the annexation ultimately passes or fails, according to Dale Brown, Pope County Election Commission chairman.

Campaign volunteers were separating early vote ballots that included the annexation question from other ballots around midnight Tuesday so a hand count could more easily take place later this week. Brown said a hand count would likely take place either Thursday or Friday when volunteers were able to conduct the count.

It is unknown how many of the 7,000 votes cast during the early voting period by county residents included the annexation vote. Only registered voters in Russellville and the area to be annexed were eligible to vote in the election.

Supporters of the annexation proposal said it will be a positive growth issue for the entire area, enticing new commercial, residential and industrial development. They said the new development would be under city planning guidelines, ensuring that street and drainage issues will be addressed and preventing haphazard construction in the area of Pope County best destined for growth.

Opponents, however, argued that Russellville has no right to annex the land, possibly taking from Pope County's sales tax revenue.

The annexation proposal is in two tracts: Tract one, which is south of State Route 247 and Highway 7 in extreme southern Pope County near the Arkansas River; and tract two, which is a portion northeast of the present Russellville limits, basically making up a zigzag diagonal line from Highway 7 in northern Russellville southeast to an area north of Pottsville, joining with that city's northern boarder.

The second tract is the one that garnered the most opposition to the plan, mostly because of the concerns of County Judge Jim Ed Gibson and officials with the Crow Mountain Fire Department, along with residents of the area to be annexed. A group called Citizens Against Proposed Annexation was formed to counter attempts to annex the property.

Voter upset at process

A resident of the area to be annexed said she and other voters were denied the ability to vote with regular ballots Tuesday because there names were left off a list of eligible voters that was supplied by Russellville officials.

Linda Grauman, who resides just north of Russellville's current city limits, said poll workers at first told her and other people like her that, if there name was not on the list, they would not be able to have a ballot that included the annexation question. She said they later allowed them to vote with a provisional ballot - a ballot that can be counted after election officials verify that the person does, in fact, live in the area - although some people cast their ballot into counting machines before they realized the annexation was not on their ballot.

She accused poll workers of encouraging people to take ballots that did not include the annexation issue rather than cast a provisional ballot even if those people contended they lived in the area to be annexed.

"I was very upset with everything," Grauman said. "There are a lot of people who didn't get to vote in this annexation who should have been able to do just that."

Brown said the poll workers did not intimidate voters and worked hard to ensure all eligible voters were allowed to vote for the annexation election. He said no one filed a complaint with the Election Commission accusing inappropriate actions by the poll workers, and denied the wrongdoing alleged by Grauman when told of her complaints by The Courier.

"All the issues that I know about were addressed appropriately," Brown said. "The poll workers were instructed that when someone insisted on voting in the annexation, that you give them a provisional ballot and we'd check the addresses. That's the law."

Those who voted with a provisional ballot will be notified by mail if their vote was either allowed or disallowed.

The same situation arose during early voting at the Pope County Courthouse. County clerk officials realized early in the voting that the list provided by Russellville officials was not complete - dozens of voters who live in the area to be annexed were apparently not included on a list provided by Russellville.

County Clerk Don Johnson, after consulting with state election officials, and his staff checked voter information on the spot, however, allowing voters to use a regular ballot when they were able to verify the address of the voter was, in fact, inside the area to be annexed.

Officer steps in

One problem occurred Tuesday morning at Tucker Coliseum when a voter refused to remove a political sticker while entering the voting area. The voter then became angry at a precinct official, Richard Peel, until an Arkansas Tech University police officer stepped in to subdue the man, according to witnesses.

Ironically, the officer, Todd Steffy, was previously sued by Peel, a local attorney, to keep Steffy off the ballot. Steffy voluntarily withdrew from the race, but was one of the officers on hand Tuesday for security purposes.

Steffy had no comment on the incident. Peel said he appreciated the action of Steffy and other officers who stepped in to calm the person.

The man was released without arrest when he later left voluntarily.

Voters wearing T-shirts, buttons, stickers and other campaign paraphernalia promoting a political party or a candidate were asked to remove those items Tuesday before entering Tucker Coliseum.